Ohana Comic-Con returns to Madera
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune Rebekah Randall dresses as Foxy, left, and Arianna Reyes dresses as Spring Trap during Madera Fresno Comic Con 2018 hosted by Ohana Comic Con at Holy Spouse Hall at St. Joachim School last Saturday.
Although Ohana Comic-Con founder Ziggy Star didn’t see the crowd he would have liked, he was still pleased at what he saw at his latest event in Madera.
“It’s about half of the one we had in October,” Star said. “I don’t know why. I can’t put my finger on it. We’re going to come back, but we might wait a year instead of six months.”
Although the crowds weren’t as big as Star hoped Saturday at St. Joachim’s Holy Spouses Hall, it did allow those who attended more time to browse around and see what vendors had.
“It’s been great,” said Manuel Gomez, a consultant with Blue Shell Games in Madera. “Retro games don’t go out of style. They get more popular as the years go on. New consoles bring more awareness for the old games. Today, we sold a Nintendo 64 and a Gameboy. We sold different games from their childhood.”
Even Eric Cortes of Wolfe Toys, formerly from Madera, had trouble drawing people to his booth full of Lego collectibles.
“We were in Madera for about a year,” he said. “We deal part-time with Lego collectibles. We follow a couple of shows in the Central Valley.”
In addition to Lego collectibles, Cortes also has collectible toys that he can’t bring out because of space.
“We do two or three shows a month,” Cortes said. “It was a little slow today. I don’t know if it was a bad day.”
Star is still happy with the response of the attendees.
“It’s great here,” he said. “The people and response has been awesome. We’re family run here. I have 17 grandkids so they help out a lot. Everyone here is like family.”
Star even brought in a couple of celebrities, including the actor he played Darth Vader in a couple of Star Wars films and Len Smith, the animator of the Disney cartoon “Tailspin.”
“It’s very cool, especially when they say I was a part of their childhood,” Smith said. “It’s awesome for me. It finally got back around years later. I came out for the Comic Con and I have family here to visit.”
Star has more shows lined up and some of the vendors follow him around from city to city.
“Next week, we’ll be in Merced, then Marysville,” Star said. ‘These guys follow along. We’re all family here.”
